Review of The Element of Crime (1984) by Tor M — 12 Feb 2013

Von Trier in surreal, ambient, dream mode equals something uniqe. Something that is hard to get. I like the sepia-colors a lot. It creates a nice atmosphere. It left me confused, but not in a very good way. I don't need to understand it, but I want something more than the nice, visual ride and the great filming in nice settings. Von Trier creates a new world and I have seen nothing like it. The story is hard to hang on to in a way. I missed out on several aspects, I never paid attention to the Europe versus other continents for example.

I see planty of other films in it. "Delicatessen", "Stalker" and "Bladerunner" with a hint of Lynch. Still, this is very Von Trier like. I also dig that Futurama message sending method. Anyway, the craftmanship of this film is fantastic, but this anti-thriller is just good.